Europe

The Mobile Emergency and Resuscitation Service (SMUR) is on the front line in the fight against coronavirus
Centre hospitalier d’Argenteuil

FROM THE FIELD: How refugees are helping overwhelmed health systems' COVID-19 response

27 April 2020
Health

With many European health services struggling to deal with an influx of COVID-19 patients, many refugees and migrants with experience in the sector, are being drafted in to help respond to the crisis. 

Children at a refugee center in Athens (file photo)
UNICEF/Gilbertson

Greece: COVID-19 pandemic a further risk to refugee child education

27 April 2020
Culture and Education

UN agencies in Greece have expressed concern at the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the education of refugee children in the country, as a charity partner warns that funding for educational programmes is on the verge of running out.

File photo of a wide view of the Security Council, being briefed via video conference by Zahir Tanin (on screen), Head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Put aside political agendas ‘to save lives’, top UN official in Kosovo urges

24 April 2020
Peace and Security

The senior UN official in Kosovo is stressing that strong leadership and political unity are needed now more than ever, as local leaders and their international partners wage war on the “enormous challenge” posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Aldo Sebastián Cicchini, a violinist at RAI orchestra plays on a balcony in Milan, Italy during the COVID-19.
Ana Mazzeo

First Person: The power of art in a time of coronavirus crisis

15 April 2020
Health

In Italy, impromptu concerts, performed from apartment balconies, have become one of the features of life under lockdown. On UNESCO World Art Day, which falls on April 15, a professional violinist told UN News how he is using his talent to help others through the crisis.

A fever is one of the symptoms of coronavirus
Unsplash/Matteo Fusco

First Person: ‘Fate’ of Italian nurse, and countless other health workers, depends on protective clothing

7 April 2020
Health

A 24-year-old nurse in Italy who is treating patients with the deadly COVID-19 virus has been describing how her “fate” on any given day is dependent on how well she dresses in her protective clothing.

Many classes for children at migrant and refugee reception centres in Bosnia — such as this one in Sedra — have gone online
UNICEF/IOM Bosnia & Herzegovina

COVID-19: from conflict to pandemic, migrants in Bosnia face a new challenge

3 April 2020
Migrants and Refugees

Migrants and refugees hosted at UN-run reception centres in Bosnia-Herzegovina, are learning to cope with the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Syrian family prepares to huddle down by a fire out of the wind while children gather branches to burn, as they deliberate how to get home after a failed crossing attempt at the Edirne border with Greece.
© IOM/Emrah Özesen

'Everyone at risk’ as coronavirus cases tick up among migrants and refugees sheltering in Greece

2 April 2020
Migrants and Refugees

With 23 migrants at an open accommodation site in central Greece testing positive for COVID-19, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) sounded the alarm on Thursday over conditions in crowded reception centres on five Greek islands where the virus risks taking hold.

Two young Roma women have been sewing home-made masks that are distributed by civil society groups to social care institutions including old people’s homes.
Hatefree.cz/Lukáš Houdek

COVID-19: Czech Roma community faces up to mask challenge

1 April 2020
Health

When face masks stocks began running low in the Czech Republic, minority communities, including the country’s Roma population, were quick to respond, rallying to make fresh supplies, with the aim of slowing the spread of COVID-19.